I’m just past the chapter in my exam book about groups and users, both local and Active Directory. The whole idea of users and groups is an old one for me, so not much new material. What was nice was the reminder of the extra information that Active Directory offers against user accounts, there is a whole pile of tabs to collect extra information that local user accounts don’t even bother with. Led me to reminisce about the old days when I used to hit these things using the early versions of ADSI and that the earlier versions of Microsoft Exchange were the best place to store user information. Oh and that hopping around providers was a necessity to be able to get to certain directory object properties. Windows 2000 really changed that, I guess Windows 2003 is even better.

The coverage of Active Directory is quite limited for this exam, mainly because there is a dedicated exam under the MCSE track that covers it off as a seperate subject.

For myself I’ve populated the Microsoft My Learning, which sits off the newly redesigned Microsoft Learning home page, this is a handy way of listing the exams I’m planning to do, and to list out the free e-learning for sql 2005 that Microsoft are currently offering.

I’ve had a niggling issue with my PC in the House, its a fairly decent spec Dell of just over a year old, 3GHz Intel P4 Hyperthreading thingie, with 1.5Gb RAM, SATA Drive, Nvidia 6600GT PCI Express etc. But for the last week and a bit it has had an annoying habit of being slow to fire things up.

The applications are quick enough once they arrive, but the delay after double click, while it seems to think at length about what I’ve just asked was getting annoying. Then after a wait of a minute or less, the application suddenly appears in a rush.

It had me a bit stumped, I wondered if my recent forays into the world of Virtual PC or other stuff had introduced something – after all, VPC isn’t “officially supported” on this OS.

I had a hunt around microsoft support this morning, and I think I have cracked it – KB 841571 talks about the Simple Service Discovery Protocol Service causing hassle on a PC. I’ve kicked the service off and disabled it, and so far so good.

Thinking back over stuff I think this came back in when I opened up the security on the machine to allow a folder to be shared, the XP Home Wizard that gets involved at that time spoke about the Internet Gateway – which announces itself via SSDP. I was gearing up to get the image of Windows 2000 Server copied over – that was it !!

Noticed something a little unusual when washing the bike after a ride last Sunday, one of the bobbins on the offside front disc was a little bit out of line compared to the others. Taking a proper look at it showed it was looking a lot more worn that the others.

Turns out that the E-Clip that holds it on was missing, as was the washer from the back and it was working its way loose. Drat.

Ordered up a couple to allow for me bodging the job and the parts arrived on Thursday.

Was going to post pictures of the process, then changed my mind when I saw yet another sterling effort over on ebbo.org so didn’t bother as much – although I have a few pics. As it was only one offending bobbin in my case, I left the wheel on the bike and worked to replace it in situ.

The hardest part for me was compressing the small ring round the bobbin, which has two grooves in it. The first takes a small ring (like a piston ring, or a spring – has a small gap) fits into a corresponding groove in the disc and carrier. On a piston you would use a piston ring compressor to compress the piston rings for fitting, I destroyed my initial one and had to use the backup bobbin to fit.

Then there was the matter of getting the e-clip on the back of the bobbin, which was again more of a case of my technique and big fingers. Once placed the clip slides on without two much effort.

I was in two minds whether to go to the show this year, the decision to go is an annual event that precedes the thing itself in March. The cost of £12 is one element, if we go as a family it means me forking out £48 before buying stuff at the show to feed everyone and perhaps even buy some sort of biking “bargain” from one of the stands. And this time I have a bike, so my interest has changed somewhat. The compromise this time was that just the two of us went, leaving the kids at home, and I viewed it as a little Wedding Anniversary present to myself.

We started out quite well, ever since the incident when I had to get towed from a field they had the cheek to call a car park, I have always driven in from the airport end of the RHS and parked where there is at least some semblance of gravel to help drainage and get some grip. I remember the parking charge as being £2 which is ok-ish, and what really worked out this time is that we were parked about 100 metres from the south entrance to the show, which itself is about 60 metres from the door to one of the main halls. The shortest walk I think I have ever had to get in, which was a good start.

Unfortunately the weather lived up to its reputation of Scotland in early March, and there was a biting wind and occaisional rain. But, come on, Scotland is like that, so it can’t be too much of a surprise. Especially as I have been riding the BMW through the winter since November, pausing when snow and ice appeared outside, I’m a hardened biker now (cough, aye right).

Even better was the fact that the entrance nearest to us had a cafe, and just in to the show was the BMW stand. Almost a perfect start! I had a wander around the stand, sitting on what I could. I’d love to like “normal” bikes, but I’m just totally the wrong shape for the current crop of sports bikes which seem to get smaller and smaller each year. BMW’s still seem to fit me, even if its the smallest bike they make. I must admit that the traditional full on tourers are not my kettle of fish, too much plastic up around me although I bet they keep you dry and warm. It was only at this show that I noticed that the single sided swinging arm at the back of the BMW bikes are on different sides between the R and K bikes.

If you don’t already know, BMW have a tradition of naming their boxer twin bikes with an R prefix. Hence my R1100RS is a two-cylinder horizontally opposed 1100cc motorbike, air cooled in the past, oil and air cooled these days. The K bikes tend to have four cylinders and liquid cooling, although they have had the odd 3 cylinder bike in the past. Up till the recent K1200, the four cylinders were in line across the bike i.e. laid on their side, but the K1200S introduced a new four cylinder engine with the crankshaft across the width of the bike, and canted well forward i.e. the top of the engine is angled towards the front of the bike. These days we also have the F bikes, which are either single cylinder (like the Dakar racing bikes) or inline twins. There is also the wacky HP2 Enduro which breaks the naming standard, but it is a bit different.

Examples of each of the types were on the stand, with the new R1200S, R1200GS (normal and adventure), R1200RT and HP2 representing the latest of the oilheads, albeit not the entire range as the R1200ST wasn’t present. For the K bikes there were the K1200S, K1200R, K1200GT, K1200LT all smart and shiney.

But, all with standard BMW prices to go with them, so it will be another 10 years before their second hand prices come down to a level which I can afford.

Rona and I then wandered around the rest of the show, and I caught up with Joe on the LMTS stand, and he seemed to be glad of a chat (also helps passing trade to show an interest too!). With all the accesories and clothing on show, I’m still of a mind to spend the money on further training – as long as the bike is running of course!

Went to the Scottish Motorcycle Show with Rona today, really cold outside, summary of the bmw stand posted elsewhere, bmw stand pictures posted on the blog. Blethered to Joe Duffin on the LMTS stand.

Rest of my thoughts on the show to follow soon.

When I had my motorbike serviced in November, the chap working on it noted that the paralever bearings and brake bobbins were wearing and needed replacement.

The bobbins are quite obvious to see, they are round pieces of metal that go between the outer bit of the brake disc (the bit that the pads work on) and an inner disc that connects to the wheel. The R1100RS has two discs at the front, and each disc has 12 bobbins. I think the idea is to do with the so-called “floating” disc setup. The bobbins allow lateral movement of the disc, sideways looking from the front of the bike, but not the other way.

The paralever bearings are up the back somewhere, inside the swinging arm, and thats about all I know. I do know from hunting round google that they go from time to time in mysterious circumstances. They are part of the geometry setup that BMW designed a few years ago to counter the inherant problems that driving the rear wheel with a shaft causes, compared to using a chain or belt.

With the MOT of the bike coming up early April, I decided to get on with what needed done on the bike and called the chap in South Queensferry to arrange to get the work done. I ordered up the parts from James Sherlock and waited. When the parts didn’t appear I found out that they had delivered direct to South Queensferry like last time, which wasn’t really a problem. Having phoned up I had to make hurried arrangements to get the bike over on Monday night so that the work could be fitted in over the week. The chap that does the work for me used to be in the trade, but now works on BM’s as a hobby, so it obviously has to fit round the rest of his week and his proper job.

He phoned on Thursday to say he had finished, but I had to arrange to pick it up on Friday night because I hadn’t got the bike kit with me. The chap that works on my bike is about 5 minutes walk from Dalmeny rail station, and Haymarket rail station is about 10 minutes walk from where I work at the moment. Doing the train ride of about 10 minutes between Haymarket and Dalmeny makes great sense when I’m working in central Edinburgh. The only tricky bit is that I need to plan in the morning to wear something semi-formal, and combine it with the change in clothes for the bike. More organised than last time, I wore my steel toe-cap size 14 Dr Martin’s, and my textile bike jacket with a shirt and trousers. The rest of the bike stuff, i.e. helmet, thermals, trousers, and hi-viz overjacket I carried with me on the morning bus.

Then it snowed on Friday, and I can tell you that the last thing I wanted to do was ride the bike on snow. Being a biggish bike it weighs a lot, and anything much over upright is hard to recover when near stationary. I learned this to my cost the first time I tried to ride the bike and overbalanced it, once is enough. I checked the live-eye views of the A8000 and the South Queensferry area to see if the snow was clearing. Right enough the sun managed to melt the exposed snow, but the train ride later showed side roads and similar with a couple of inches of snow.

Thankfully when going to collect the bike he rode it out to the street which was clear of snow, obviously my apprehension was tangible at that point. The ride from there I took easy, with bits of ice kicking about, but it wasn’t a problem. The brakes were a revelation too. Apparently my front brakes had practically seized on with riding on roads with salt. Now, trying to be a tough biker I’ve been riding the BMW over the last few weeks when there wasn’t snow and ice kicking about. I’ve also tried (mostly) to rinse the bike down with cold water to try and clear the salt. All doing the right thing apparently. My downfall at the moment is total lack of experience. Between a lack of riding experience, and lack of experience with the bike, I’m not equipped at all to tell whether a particular “feature” of the bike is a fault or part of the peculiar charms of such a bike. All I know is that the front brake would get sticky when the bike hadn’t been ridden for a few days, and that it freed up after a wee ride and that the bike stopped when I pulled on the brake lever. Now the lever pulls back farther and there is a lot more progressive feel to the front brake. Lesson learned.

Got all the way back to Livingston, and the anticipation sets in. My street is on a left hand bend, and goes down a hill off the left hand camber. That combination means that you can’t see the conditions until you are just about to turn in, and also makes it interesting on an icy day. I set up for the corner, and it was my fortune to have a car following and indicating the same way, just to add to my concern of evaluating the conditions. So I slowed right down on the main road, down to first, and minimum lean with gentle back brake. After all that the experience of riding on snow wasn’t that bad, I took it well easy. The trickiest bit came at the bottom of the street, where my house is. The car park follows the slope of the street, so its either down to the left or uphill to the top of the car park. One of my neighbours was reversing out of a space, and turning to come out of carpark which only has about a car and a half’s width to come out. So I had to stop on the snow while they were maneuvering. Gently did it, and almost died when my foot slipped, thankfully I’ve been trying to apply the feedback from my run with LMTS and not stick my leg out as far, thanks Joe! After that it was both feet down, sliding my feet on the snow, and parked up on a clear spot where a car had been. On the centre stand, what a relief – all intact.

And enough daylight left to rinse down the bike with my garden spray and Autoglym bike cleaner. Padlock and chain on, cover on the top, and it’s staying there till the snow goes!

I’m annoyed, the longer version of the previous post that I even made an attempt at proof reading, disappeared in a stack error.

Almost as annoying as the olden days when I had no way of saving the programs I had written on my Mattell Acquarius. The futility of writing a program only to turn the power off and lose three hours of coding effort.